scales and birds
by Dawn Racer
Summary: My father always said to ask yourself three things, "who am I? Who do I want to be? and What do I want?" Today was the hardest decision of my life, as I had to decide if I wanted to stay on land with a real family or if I was going to return to the ocean depths to a family who ignored my existence. Seemed like a no brainer right?
1. Chapter 1

Thoughts will generally be in _italics_.

Mermish is **bold**.

"regular talk".

Points of view will be separated by the line, for the first chapter I left in the (X * X *) symbols.

* * *

 _Some people say myths are just that, that creatures cannot exist. And yet there are wonders such as the man of steel, or the fastest man alive. Why can we believe in them and not in the simple existence of something from the deep. Something far older than an Atlantis citizen. That is what my race of people are, we who can walk among two legs or swim in the deep. We of the seven seas..._

The salt of the murky water tasted wrong, the fresh texture of kelp missing and instead replaced by a repulsive fake tang that felt erroneous. The chill from the four glass walls was nothing compared to the depths of the deep I hailed from. Faint voices could be heard, who they came from I known not. All I knew at this moment was darkness, floating captured in a small section of ocean.

Darkness shrouded the corner of my eyes, making it hard to focus on the blurry figures outside of the tank. All that could be made out was that they were land dwellers. Slowly the blackness encroached further until I knew no more.

* * *

X * X * Three Weeks Later * X * X

I finally awoke from my hibernation, generally the chill of the water should have receded enough for me to be active. Only, when I came too I found myself in a greenish murky water. The water was nothing like what I came from. Looking around wildly, hair flowing with a burbling swish noise, I found myself enclosed in a small see through box. Webbed hands pressing against the glass I looked out of one of the walls to see two land dwellers.

They wore white long garments and seemed to be gesturing to me in what appeared to be excited. I couldn't understand them all that well do to the glass and water muffling their sound. If they had been under water with me, or all of us above the liquid then I probably would have been able to comprehend. Or perhaps it was still just the sluggishness of a cold season hibernation lingering in my veins. Lips parting I let out a wailing cry, the sound waves bouncing off of the glass and going nowhere else. Flipping around, long delicate beta fish like fins swirling the water, I tried to use another sonic cry but found that I could not pierce the glass.

The sonar did come back and tell me everything I had assumed. I was trapped with land dwellers in a mockery of an ocean tank, small by my standards and left me feeling cramped and itchy. A soft pinging noise rippled through the water, whirling quickly I came face to face with the land dwellers. A chill ran up my spine, Ak'yna always warned me about these white coats. They were apparently the scientist of their species.

Bile rose in my throat, I needed someone to come help me. Like King Arthur...or even Aqua Lad aka Kalder. Ak'yna couldn't come up on land like I could, so I was stuck unless someone could help me. The triumphant grins on their faces had a shiver running over my tan flesh, my scales itching, and dolphin like flipper twitching. Scowling, I banged my fists on the glass, the two seemed even more pleased for some reason.

 _What do they want with me? If they wanted to study us they could have simply asked...unless they want me to...to dissect._ Fear bubbled up in my stomach. As the gills on the left and right of my jugular flexed with panicked breaths. Bubbles bursting from my nose I thrust my powerful tail into the glass. A loud thump resounded, a small crackling noise echoed through the water. Eyes focusing on the small fissure I flexed my dorsal and slammed it into the glass again. I could see red flashing lights on the outside of the tank that hurt my eyes, a wailing noise unlike anything I've ever heard punctuated each flash. Disoriented I slowly floated backwards and then an odd cording fell into the water with me, crisscrossing ropes. Floundering around I attempted to escape only to find myself yanked up out of the water in a net. Water pouring from gills as they fluttered and then slid shut into small red lines, air rushing and harshly scratching the salt burned throat. Coughing and gasping I allowed myself to switch from gills to lungs.

" **Fre**! **Fre**!" Twisting and turning, the squealing cries erupted from my lips as I called for help in Mermish. The two scientists grabbed their ears as the words were cried out, before a dart shot into my neck. The sluggishness of before, the feeling of hibernation swept over me. Face contorting I vehemently tried to ward off the sleepiness to no avail.

" **Fre**... **Toh**..."

* * *

X * X * POIINT OF VIEW SWITCH * X * X

"Damn, it fought hard Dr. Harpinder...what should we do with it?" The younger scientist inquired nervously. Eyeing the mermaid in the large net, a tranquilizer dart set up to down an elephant sticking from the shoulder, the younger doctor grimaced at the sight of the teal and black scales. Soft tan skin merging with them at the hip, soft pink lips and long mahogany hair. From the hips up it could have passed as a seductress, a siren, he mused.

"She, Mr. Andrew. She, not it. This specimen will draw in the new age of ocean discovery. Besides those Atlanians, we've never found another form of intelligent life besides the dolphin or wale. We'll make history." The older doctor whispered with pride. An obsessive and greedy glint to his eye, he turned with a flourish and spread both arms with palms up to the ceiling.

"We've found a Mermaid Mr. Andrew. Now, we study her and if we play our cards right, the JL won't get involved and no damned humanitarian groups will catch wind." Dark laughter echoed from his lips as he strode away leaving the young scientist to gaze up at the netted form cast in shadow. Pity twisted his heart and brought a burst of nausea to him, they were going to torment an _intelligent_ life form?

Twisting, he walked away and pulled his phone from his pocket. Now that he knew of Dr. Harpinder's scheme he could contact the JL. Being an undercover "assistant" was not his thing, but he was the only young doctor working with the JL that could pull it off.

Pressing the one key, he waited impatiently for the the link to click, signaling a secure connection had been made, and for someone to answer.

"Good evening Andrew Bowman." A crisp and slightly accented voice murmured in his ear. Leaning at the wall, the man glanced around and peaked around the corner before whispering hurriedly.

"Manhunter, there's been a change. The target has a specimen that King Arthur will be very interested in keeping safe." There was a pause and the sound of typing as Andrew waited for the alien to respond. Pushing a hand through his dirty blonde hair he anxiously looked around the corner again only to freeze when he saw the older scientist coming back into the room. His back facing Andrew as he pulled out a pair of tweezers and ripped a few bio-luminescent scales from the Mermaid.

"..An...there?" Coming back to reality, the young doctor have a soft grunt of acknowledgment and whispered quickly, "Sorry Jo'hn, hurry...for her sake." Ending the call, the doctor quickly joined the older doctor to avoid suspicion.

* * *

X * X * ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW CHANGE * X * X

"Was that Andrew?" Jo'hn turned to see Clark and nodded. His face grave as he faced the Kryptonian, said man was focused on him in concern as he listened.

"Andrew stated there had been a change, Dr. Harpinder has found a specimen that belongs to the Atlanian realm." Clark's face became alarmed as he nodded and whirled to go find Batman, Jumping slightly he realized the man was already there.

"I take it you heard everything?" Clark asked Bruce calmly, when the serious man nodded he started typing on his wrist computer.

"I'm already in the network, my system is downloading information as we speak. We'll have to tread carefully." He growled it lowly, his eyes narrowing behind his mask as he scowled at the screen on his wrist. It honestly amazed Clark sometimes how Batman could scowl behind the cowl and emit the black aura so well.

* * *

X * X * POINT OF VIEW CHANGE * X * X

Alertness slowly crept back up my spine, moaning quietly bubbles flew up from bruised lips. Scrapes and cuts bled in slow red wispy tendrils into the water. Patches of scale, pieces of fins and flesh missing. I hurt all over and had rope burn from where the net had rubbed. Looking up with drowsy eyes, the dark irises focused on the low light of the lab, the tank she was in had appeared to be cleaned as the water was a little lighter and the salt a little less. Honestly, not having as much salt as before made her grimace, the water tasting oddly sweet.

I wasn't sure how long I had been out...but I did know that that **setanim** was gone. He was the very definition of **setantreaya** , as my sore scales could attest. Suddenly a door creaked open, looking up I floundered backwards, bubbles rushing from my mouth as gills flexed quickly.

The younger **setanim** came in, the human walking around casually before creeping closer. What gave me pause however, was his eyes. Brown, such a simple color, yet when hardened with anger could be as dark as the ships that crashed against them. His however were soft...warm like the sooty bottom of the muddy brackish rivers where the whiskered fish lived.

Pushing away from the furthest glass wall I slowly swam closer, my powerful tail brushing the bottom as I used it to balance myself. Raising up a webbed hand slowly, I placed it against the glass wall and tilted my head, mauve hair floating delicately. He moved his lips, a frown pulled at my brow as I couldn't understand what he said. His words were warped from the glass and buffering the water between us.

The man motioned to his wrist and tapped a rather interesting device, it had small sticks that moved around. Suddenly the word came to me, clock. It was a clock of some sort..Ak'yan said that it helped humans tell time. _How curious_.

The man motioned to it, then wrapped his knuckles on the glass and made a motion to the door. He did this a few times before it clicked; clock, glass, door. He meant that they would escape soon? Nodding fervently I twisted around excitedly and he merely smiled as well.

The sound of voices echoed and the older man, the cruel **scaahoo** thief appeared again. And suddenly my new friend moved over to him. Right then I decided I would call him Otter, after all Otter's are curious and amusing creatures...much like him.

* * *

AN:

So what do ya'll think so far? I've been wanting to do something with super heroes and mermaids for awhile now.

In this story Mermaids are different from Atlantians, also Mermish can be understood by Atlantians, although it is an old dialect.

 **Translations:**

1\. Fre (fray)= help

2\. Toh = no

3\. setanim (see-tah-neem)= human

4\. setantraeya (see-tah-tray-ya) = sneaky/untrustworthy person

5\. scaahoo = scale

Let me know that ya'll think!

 **~D.R. Out**


	2. Chapter 2

**Bold** is Mermish  
 _Italic_ are thoughts  
This is regular stuff

* * *

3 P.M. Solar City, FL

High pitch screams echoed eerily down the corridors. Electricity shocked through my entire nervous system before being cut off again. Machines were whirling and beeping erratically as I lay there panting. Dark eyes flickered open as I stared warily at the hurtful scientist coming closer. A sob ripped from my chest as I cried out.

" **Fre**! **Toh Ffa ah~ee**!" The man sneared and struck the electric maker into my side, another high pitched screech escaped my lips as I arched. My feens jerking and twitching painfully. Finally he pulled the electric maker back and spoke in the human tongue. I could understand little, enough to get the gist of what he meant yet the rest was gibberish to me.

"Are you ready to talk now? Tell me your name!" He held up the spark stick, the name of which I had no name, it was nothing more then an **ah~hee** maker. My scales itched from the prolonged exposure to air, much more of this and I'd be liable to sprout legs. Something I'd never done before, but knew my people had the ability. After all, the **Baovveche** are quite adaptable. Twisting, I snarled at him, baring my teeth as I spat at him.

" **Bett Lli** Hyuumann **...** Suffer...wrath...of **Baovveche**...Merpeople." He snarled and poked the hurt maker back into my side. With another screech I floundered around in paint until he pulled it away and pushed his sweaty hair back. Pushing a button the table I was on rose up and flipped backwards to dump me back in the tank. Only this time, I realized with horror, it was filled with **Bette~Wuutah** or freshwater as the Hyuumann would call it.

I was a salt water Mermaid, we could not endure freshwater for long or it would act as a corrosion and tarnish our scales and cause rash and pain. This **Lli** truly was a master of **ah~hee**. Crying out I writhed and tried to scale the glass, but the tank was only half full. The splashing didn't even get close to coming out of the cage.

"Ak'ia!" I cried out. The man paused and grinned coming closer as I miserably curled away from him and hissed from the pain. The doctor pulled out some device of writing and a pale booklet as he jotted it down.

"Is that your name?" He asked with a smirk. Hiding my face in my arm I sobbed out a choked **Eeas** and nodded. Laughter once again assaulted my ears as a net came down and I all too willingly let it wrap around me so I could be pulled out of the **Bette-Wuutah**.

* * *

8 P.M. Solar City, Florida

Later that night found me curled up in the bottom furthest right hand corner. A slime had built up earlier on my tail, no doubt to protect my scales. The patches of scales that were missing were still raw and painful. Any time I moved as well, a burning sensation rippled up through my body, however there wasn't much I could do. A quiet keening noise echoed through the water as I hummed a soothing lullaby about the sea goddess **Bavverissi** that my mother had taught me before she passed.

The quiet keening echoed eerily through the room as I stretched painfully again. Exhaustion weighing on me, yet I could not sleep. My stomach cramped from hunger, it had now been two weeks since I had last eaten. Merpeople could go days without food, a survival mechanism that was ingrained into us, however. Several weeks without food, plus close to a month of torture? That was something I would not do to the cruelest land dweller. Curiously enough I hadn't seen the kind human in awhile, I could only assume he had escaped the cruel one. _Good...Otter is free...free as the_ _ **taahi**_ _as it comes in and out with the sun and moon._ How I missed the low and high **taahi**. It had been fun to play in the **taahi (** or tide as the human called it) until Ak'yna called for her to return.

In that moment I wished and wished that Ak'yna found me, but sadly I knew as chief he would not come. Besides, I was expendable, I was simply a **Lla**...he had his second born **Lli** to take over if I should perish. Bottom lip trembling I curled in on myself further, mauve hair ghosting around me in the dark water as I circled my tail up to my chest and buried my face in it. Dark blue eyes clenched closed and slowly I slipped into a twilight sleep mode. Not quite awake but not unconscious.

* * *

8:15 P.M. Solar City, Florida

Dick had seen many things, but breaking into a lab with Bats to see a giant water tank was interesting. _Especially_ when said water tank was three fourths full and had a creature in it he'd only read about. Ok creature was cutting it close, Dick decided, it was a Mermaid. A rather interesting site to see and he knew if Wally was there he'd be making all sorts of jokes and puns about fish.

Creeping closer while Bats messed with the camera, Richard was started to see the state of her. She was obviously half conscious and breathing through the gills in the side of her neck, a slime coated her tail and drifted into the water in odd strings. Scales were in those strings and said little teal and black scales had begun to fall off and drift to the bottom.

He remembered reading somewhere that fish losing scales, particularly goldfish, was usually a sign of injury or stress. Which looking at her...both applied. There were obvious burn marks, cuts, tissue missing, hell her tail even looked like some fins had been clipped. Swallowing he looked back for Batman realized he had stopped right behind him. He must have really been out of it not to notice Bats.

"He did a number on her." Robin muttered quietly, Batman simply frowned and stepped forward as he criticized the tank. The moment Batman lightly touched the glass, both saw the Mermaid's eyes flash open. Her tail unraveling as it pushed harshly against the floor and into the glass like she could get any further away.

Dark blue eyes were wide with desperation. Lips chapped, and accented by the bruise on her chin and cheek, parted as a stream of bubbles escaped her. Robin watched as Batman silently held up a single hand in a mildly placating gesture. His lips pressed into a thin line as he eyed the distressed young Mermaid.

"We're not your enemies." He rumbled lowly, his hand pressed to the glass as he spoke. Robin watched her slowly sink back down to the bottom, eyes on him as she hesitantly swam closer, a soft keen coming from her lips that echoed from the water. It reminded him distinctly of the noise orca made when trying to communicate. Tilting his head he tapped the glass to get her attention as Bats disappeared to do something, only muttering a low "keep her calm.".

"So...you're a Mermaid, you don't look much like a maid to me. English is weird." Blinking she tilted her head minutely and blew a small bubble as a little grin pulled at her lips. Robin wasn't sure if she could understand or not, but he took that smile as his queue to keep talking. It was only about five minutes when a net suddenly dropped down. Seeing her flinch, Dick quickly wrapped on the glass to get her attention, making an up motion he then made a gesture to the outside. Eyes brightened the smallest bit as the female nodded.

* * *

8:45 P.M. Solar City, Fl

I couldn't really understand him at all, however, touching the glass as he spoke allowed me to pick up on his vibrations that echoed into the water. The vibrations were calming, no bad vibes if you will. As the net dropped in with a splash, I slowly swam up weakly as I reached for the course material. _One more time, you can do it...just one more time of that damned rope_.

The substance seemed to stick to me, capturing me easily and dragging my prone form into the air. Water poured from my gills as lungs took back over. Plopping onto the floor, surprisingly gently I noted, I found myself flinching when a hand touched my cold raw flesh. A quiet keen escaped me as the two spoke quickly.

"She's hurt, we can't exactly drag her out but I don't think we'll be strong enough to carry her." The deep gravelly voice had my fins prickling and horizontal bio-luminescent teal colors lit up along my scales due to anxiety. The smaller one, a child I presumed, quickly said something back. It was far to fast for me to catch, and I probably wouldn't have understood anyway due to my lack of knowledge on humans.

A blanket appeared out of nowhere and draped across my shivering body, I hadn't even realized I'd been shivering until then. As well as heavily muscled arms picked me up as the one in all black, the adult grim warrior, toted me carefully out of the room. He grunted quietly as he shifted me, no doubt I was heavy to him due to the long tail.

"...ha'vy?" I managed to get out what I thought was the human word for heavy. The **Lli** raised an eyebrow and grunted a quick denial. Tilting my head I let it drape back against him and accidentally fell asleep. It wasn't a heavy sleep, just light enough to hear them going through the building...entering something and an odd sense of vertigo. Then there was nothing.

* * *

Location: Classified, Justice League Headquarters

I slowly came too, the sound of beeping and warm salty water. For the first time in half a moon cycle I was relatively comfortable...if you ignored the stinging pains of wounds and hunger pains. Eyes slipping open I blinked slowly only to find myself in a rather large tank. It spanned at least twenty feet long and twenty feet wide, although it was tall at least thirty feet.

Panic set in before being quelled, slowly I pushed up from the bottom and sluggishly swam around. My eyes taking in the smooth glass bottom. Up again I noticed something on the bottom, coming closer I paused when I realized it was a small chess looking thing. Twirling around it, I felt my curiosity get piqued.

Head tiling I tapped it with a fin and then darted backwards, when it didn't do anything I swam closer and tapped it with my fingers and before jerking back yet again. Nothing happened a second time, coming closer I swam around it before prying it open. Inside was food, kelp drifting up and small clams sat at the bottom. Eyes lighting up I stuffed the kelp in my gullet and snagged a clam before drifting lazily backwards and worked on opening it.

Unknown to myself at the moment, the cameras zeroed in on me and swiveled as they watched my every movement.

* * *

Current Time: 10 P.M. EST  
Location: Classified, Justice League Headquarters.

"She's weak, of course that is to be expected from the amount of stress and trauma that was put onto her on top of starvation." The green alien known as J'ohn J'ones spoke from the table the founders sat at, his eyes glued to the screen as they watched her quickly eat and quickly re-scout her new confinement.

"An outrage, who would do that to a child?" Diana spoke, her eyes hard as she watched the child softly. Child abuse was unheard of in Thymiscera. She paused when Batman spoke up, effecting shutting up Clarke from whatever he was about to say.

"As of right now, she's spent two weeks under the scalpel and scrutiny of a Dr. Harpinder whom Andrew went in disguise to stop. I've found documents on his desk that show the doctor was working on some type of research in regards to Atlantians, and now Mermaids, to find a way to integrate their DNA with a human's." He paused and glared around the room, waiting for someone to interrupt, as usual Flash spoke up.

"Why would he wanna do that?" Flash asked calmly, eyeing Batman quietly as he nervously jerked his foot in super speed.

"I'm still researching." Batman supplied, _So he doesn't down yet_ Barry thought. As the team sighed softly.

"Whatever he's doing though, he's lucky he didn't start a war. I've been in contact with Aquaman, the Mermaid is A'kai, she's the next in line to be chief of the Merpeople of the Atlantic." Silence reigned around the table as they all felt the seriousness of the situation hit them.

"You mean to tell me that girl is technically a princess? And she was captured by one of our scientists and experimented on?" Green Lantern asked, John wasn't sure which was worse. Princess being captured or princess being captured AND mistreated. This spelled bad for everyone.

"Which means we need to get her back to health and get her home as quickly as possible." Clarke responded. Everyone glancing around at each other until Clarke continued, "Maybe it would be beneficial for her to stay with The Team."

"You can't be serious? They're children. Shouldn't she be watched by someone more responsible?" John responded, green eyes glowing ominously.

"She's a kid too, besides what's the worst that could happen? I'm sure the Young Justice can handle her."

* * *

AN:

Hey ya'll! So tada chapter two all in one night. For those of ya'll that are regular readers I still plan to finish some of my other DC works, I'm not abandoning them.

So the translation for this chapter:

 **Fre** : help

 **Toh** : No

 **Eeas** : yes

 **Ffa** : I

 **Ah-EE** : Hurts

 **Baovvechee** : Merpeople.

 **Bette-Wutta** : fresh water (literally translations bad water. However, it is in reference to fresh water)

 **Lli** : Male

 **Lla** : Female

 **Taahi** : Tide

I look forward to hearing what ya'll think! Also, who do you want her to end up with, if I do romance? So far I'm thinking it'll either be Caldur, Richard, or Wally.

~D.R. Out


	3. Chapter 3

Thank you to the guest who left a review, I appreciate the feedback immensely. It's been forever since I've watched the show, so it was good to hear the correction. Per your question on age, that will be answered this chapter. :)

* * *

A soft splash rippled over the surface of the water. Dark blue eyes flickered open as I shifted and glanced up from where I slept on the very bottom. At the top of the water there was the shimmering shape of someone looking in. It was someone I recognized, distantly, as if from a foggy childhood memory.

Pushing up slowly, I glided slowly through the dark water, the majority of the lights outside were dimmed down. Floating up slowly, deflating the air sacks in my stomach, I found myself at about five feet below the surface. There, sitting there with his hands gently tapping and swishing the water was a boy that looked to be about my age.

 _He looks to be about my age, possibly older...do I know him?_ He seemed so familiar, yet not. Tilting and shifting to the side I studied him quietly, he didn't appear to have noticed me yet, that's when I noticed the marks on the side of his neck. My left hand flashed up quickly and touched my own gills, _he is...of Atlantis_? My teal bio-luminescent stripes lit up in my surprise and anxiety.

 _Was he here to extract me? Had someone sent him here for me?_ Frightened, I twisted away, my long powerful tail slamming down and creating a bubbling ripple. Sinking further down I eyed him, his face was now turned towards me and I could only stare vehemently. I would not go with him, not if he was here on my father's behalf. If the man couldn't come for me himself, then we would never see each other again.

Muffled voices echoed eerily but made a little more sense than they had in the other tank. Still muffled, but not nearly as distorted. That's when I saw another **Ffuegane** (person) appear, a **Lla** or female as they said. This person did not strike me as a human, she is after all green. The two spoke quietly, their voices vibrating down to me. Unknown words and phrases thrown around, only a handful sounded distantly familiar.

Suddenly the dark skinned Atlantian jumped into the water. Immediately a burst of bubbles left my mouth as I swished my tail in a threatening display. Horizontal teal lines flashing across my tail vividly as a hiss rasped through the water. The young man's hands came up in a calming display.

" **Ffa sessmuna...** **Angisho lutho olulimazayo**." Freezing I calmed slightly from his words, if what he said was true he was a friend of mermaids...and meant no harm. Nodding I moved closer slowly as he treaded water in place. Swirling around him it took me another moment for it to click. I had met this boy when we were children, a very long time ago.

"Know...you?" I asked in rough English, knowing if he was with land dwellers then he would know the language and probably be more comfortable with it. Immediately he nodded and offered a calming smile, no matter how small said expression was it did calm my nervs some.

"Who...name?" I asked in the broken language. Worrying my bottom lip as he came slowly closer, my fins prickling from the sensation of someone or something watching me.

"Kaldur." He replied, as I twisted to see a group of teens standing outside of the glass some ways down. They all appeared rather intently focused on us. Frowning I looked back only to see Kaldur already swimming to back up to the surface again. Frowning, I decided to follow suite, after all...perhaps if there were others of my age then I could assimilate to their culture and language better.

As well as find out what they wanted.

* * *

AN:

I didn't have a lot of time to write tonight, however, I wanted to get some of the introduction out of the way. For those of you that might be curious on the language I'm using a mix of Zulu and Mermish-Tharian online.

The phrase " **FFa Sessmuna...Angisho lutho Olulimazayo** " literally translates out to "I friend of mermaid...I mean no harm."

Let me know what you think!

~D.R. Out


End file.
